Fantasy Sports: Yasiel Puig piles in and value soars

Sunday

Jun 16, 2013 at 6:00 AM

It has become a theme this season that young stars are breaking out and altering the fantasy baseball landscape. That Gestalt shift is difficult enough to keep track of in its simplest form, but now some youths are being plucked from other countries and quickly thrown into action before we have time to prepare for their arrival.

Yasiel Puig defected from Cuba in 2012 and in late June that year was signed to a contract with the Dodgers. He got in all of 63 minor league games from there, batting .328 overall with 13 homers, 52 RBIs and 21 steals before getting a deserved call-up to the big-league team this month.

Since then, he has put together a list of accolades to rival Daniel Day-Lewis’ résumé: third player to hit at least three home runs, with one being a grand slam, in his first four career games; fourth player with a pair of four-RBI games in his first four games; tied for most RBIs (nine) in a player’s first four games; the second to hit four homers in his first five games; the first Dodger to have 11 hits in his first seven games (he went on to actually post 13 in that time); National League Player of the Week.

In the grandest tradition of hating our betters, some are trying to tear down Puig and have questioned his actions in Tuesday’s brawl with the Diamondbacks. It is feigned worry, though, that wonders why someone gets upset when a fastball comes close enough to his face to graze his nose. Even the powers-that-be at Major League Baseball, who went so deep as to suspend Dodgers hitting coach Mark McGwire for two games, let Puig off with only a fine.

Oh, and Ian Kennedy, the pitcher who threw high at Puig and also at L.A. starter Zack Greinke? He was suspended for 10 games. Puig is not the bad guy here.

So on the heels of a 2012 campaign that gave us future stars in the Angels’ Mike Trout and the Nationals’ Bryce Harper (if he stops running into walls) as in-season call-ups, we could be seeing the next one.

In his first 10 games in the majors, the 22-year-old Puig batted .486 with four homers, 10 RBIs and an OPS of 1.400. Congratulations if you were able to snag him early as a free agent pickup. If not, try to enjoy his rise anyway.

Not only is this the season of altering our views on who the fantasy stars are, one we thought we knew is now stuck on the bench.

Although that is something we maybe should have expected as well.

Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with a broken rib, his fifth trip to the DL since 2008 (see chart).

Tulo was fantasy’s best at his position when he went down, leading the position in runs (41), home runs (16), RBIs (51) and average (.347) in 61 games.

Josh Rutledge will get the chance to replace Tulowitzki, coming back up from Triple A after starting the season with the Rockies. His time in the majors this season was middling, but not awful, as he batted .242 with 5 homers, 13 RBIs and 5 steals. He looked even better with Colorado Springs, batting .348 with 2 homers, 10 RBIs and a steal in 17 games. Owned in less a quarter of ESPN leagues upon his return to the majors, he could be a good pickup with eligibility at the weak positions of second base and shortstop.

Tim Tebow is another issue that keeps being resurrected. His fall from grace seemed complete — the prodigal son wasn’t even allowed to return to Jacksonville, after all — but Tebow did such a good job of washing Bill Belichick’s feet that he was allowed to join the Patriots.

While I tried to work out how keeping Wes Welker made less sense than acquiring Tebow, I tried to gain some solace that at least the fantasy enigma quarterback would be forced to play behind Tom Brady, decreasing any value he may be perceived to have.

Just when that idea started to settle, I became even happier when I realized that it wouldn’t be strong enough to keep Tebow’s new home from forcing him into a good game of “who will jump and how soon” when fantasy football draft time comes around.

I was already counting on my local draft buddies to go overboard when it came time to consider Danny Amendola, but at least he is a new Patriot who stands to play and actually put up numbers. Someone, though, is also bound to pull the Tebow-is-good-for-eight-touchdowns theory out of the optimistic ether and allow me to laugh at him.

So I say bring on the new era.

Fantasy owners of Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki are starting to have to plan for his disabled list stints. With his current broken rib, he is heading to the DL for the fifth time since 2008. His injury list: